In looking for a solution to my problem, I came upon a post in this community regarding clearing the NVRAM and when you should do so. One of the reasons to clear it was when you have the POST error I have. I was just letting you know what the "A" drive" said b/c one of the steps in clearing the NVRAM is to make sure the drive is set to "Not installed". Primary Drive says "unknown device", as well as the Drive 1 and subsequents. I had the WINXP Home in the ROM drive, b/c I was trying to do a re-install. Thanks for helping me.

I have tried to run the Diagnostics from the Drivers and Utilities Resource CD, I have tried to download the diagnostics from the Dell 32 bit Diagnostics (Graphical User interface version), and I have tried to start the computer with a boot disc. With the Drivers and Utilities CD, and with the boot disc, I get the same thing, as follows:

With the Utilities CD in the drive and the drawer closed, did you press F12 before Windows starts to load and select Boot from CD?

If it really tried to boot from the CD, you shouldn't have gotten that no boot drive message. That suggests it was still trying to boot from the hard drive. So try again before rushing out to get a new drive, though Bev. is usually right about these things and you may need a new drive. But humor me...!

And it's still possible only the boot sector got damaged on this hard drive and that can be fixed, but you'll have to get it to boot from the CD first.